New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a small U.S. state in northern New England. It is located east of Vermont, north of Massachusetts, south of Quebec, Canada, and west of Maine and the North Atlantic Ocean. The state ranks 46th of the 50 states in land area (23,249 km2) and 41st in population (around 1.3 million by a 2003 U.S. Census Bureau estimate). It is the site of the New Hampshire primary, the first primary in the U.S. presidential elections, and has probably the most famous of all state mottos: "Live free or die," quoted from Revolutionary War hero John Stark's response to a letter honoring him for the Battle of Bennington.

Miscellaneous information

See List of New Hampshire-related topics

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• The New Hampshire Constitution is the nation's only state constitution that allows the Right to Revolution.
• In Charlestown, New Hampshire there is the reconstructed Fort at Number 4 from the 1740's and 1750's
• New Hampshire was the last of the New England states to observe Fast Day, a day of prayer for a bountiful harvest. Traditionally observed on the 4th Thursday in April, from 1949 was observed as a legal holiday on the 4th Monday in April until 1991 when it was replaced by Civil Rights Day. http://www.state.nh.us/nhinfo/fast.html
• There are no general sales or individual income taxes in New Hampshire, though the state does have meals, lodging, and other taxes. (List of states without personal income tax)
• New Hampshire is the only state that does not mandate public kindergarten, partly out of frugality and lack of funding, and partly out of belief in local control, a philosophy under which towns and cities, not the state, make as many decisions as possible. As of 2005, all but two dozen communities in the state provided public kindergarten with local property-tax money.
• Like several states, New Hampshire requires all hard liquor to be sold in state-owned, state-run stores, which keep prices so low that it attracts many out-of-state customers.
• New Hampshire is host to the New Hampshire Highland Games. New Hampshire has also registered an official tartan with the proper authorities in Scotland, used to make kilts worn by the State Police while they serve during the games.
• New Hampshire has the only piece of Interstate highway that is two-lane (i.e. a single northbound lane and a single southbound lane) with a cobblestone median. This was done to preserve Franconia Notch, the site of the Old Man of the Mountain, a former rock formation visible from Interstate 93 in Franconia.
• In northern New Hampshire the town of Dixville Notch is traditionally the first city or town in the U.S. to vote in presidential primaries and the presidential election. The few dozen residents of Dixville Notch all stay awake until after midnight to vote. State law grants that a town where all registered citizens have voted may close early and announce their results.
• New Hampshire is the only state with no mandatory seatbelt law for adults, no motorcycle helmet law for adults, nor mandatory vehicle insurance for automobiles.
• New Hampshire is the destination of the Free State Project.
• EXTENDED FOOTNOTE on coastline. Official figures recognize two coastal concepts, the coastline and the shoreline. The coastline is a generalized measurement of the shore configuration, whereas the shoreline includes measurements for offshore islands and other features such as inlets and rivers to the head of a narrow tidewater. Pennsylvania has no saltwater coastline of 0 miles, but when the more detailed measurement of shoreline is used, Pennsylvania has a saltwater shoreline of 89 miles versus 131 for New Hampshire. Pennsylvania's number apparently comes because a portion of the Delaware River on its southeastern border is tidal. Source: U.S. Dept of Commerce, "U.S. Coastline by States" cited on Page 606 of the 2003 "World Almanac."

Granite State Firsts

From New Hampshire's official folklife website: http://www.nh.gov/folklife/

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• On January 5, 1776 at Exeter, the Province of New Hampshire ratified the first independent state constitution, free of British rule.
• On June 12, 1800, Fernald's Island in the Piscataqua River became the first government-sanctioned US Navy shipyard.
• Started in 1822, Dublin's Juvenile Library was the first free public library.
• In 1828, the first women's strike in the nation took place at Dover's Cocheco Mills.
• In 1845, the machine shop of Nashuan John H. Gage was considered the first shop devoted to the manufacture of machinists' tools.
• On August 29, 1866, Sylvester Marsh demonstrated the first mountain-climbing "cog" railway.
• Finished on June 27, 1874, the first trans-Atlantic telecommunications cable between Europe and America stretched from Balinskelligs Bay, Ireland, to Rye Beach, New Hampshire.
• On February 6, 1901, a group of nine conservationists founded the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, the first forest conservation advocacy group in the US.
• In 1908, Monsignor Pierre Hevey organized the nation's first credit union, in Manchester, to help mill workers save and borrow money.
• In 1963, New Hampshire's legislature approved the nation's first legal state lottery.
• In 1966, Ralph Baer of Sanders Associates, Inc., Nashua, recruited engineers to develop the first home video game, patented in 1969.
• Christa McAuliffe of Concord became the first private citizen selected to venture into space. She perished with her six space shuttle Challenger crewmates in January 28, 1986.
• On May 5, 1961, Alan B. Shepard Jr. of Derry rode a Mercury spacecraft and became the first American in space.

Grand Hotels

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• Mount Washington Hotel
• The Balsams Resort
• Mountain View Resort
• Wentworth Hotel
• Oceanic Hotel

Daily newspapers

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• New Hampshire Union Leader (Manchester)
• Telegraph of Nashua
• Concord Monitor
• Foster's Daily Democrat of Dover
• Laconia Citizen

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• Portsmouth Herald
• Keene Sentinel
• Conway Daily Sun
• Eagle Times of Claremont
• Laconia Daily Sun

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Other publications

• The New Hampshire Gazette Portsmouth alternative biweekly, arguably the oldest paper in America (although other publications also make that claim)
• New Hampshire Business Review (statewide)
• Hippo Press (Manchester and Nashua editions)
• The New Hampshire - "The University of New Hampshire's Student Newspaper Since 1911"